1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to a craft kit provided with a set of crayons or color markers and computer software, and more particularly to a kit of this type in which the software therein makes it possible to set up a computer system adapted to convert a digital image of a colored picture into a line drawing divided into zones, each of which corresponds to a color region of the picture whereby a child using the set can color in the zones to recreate the colored picture.
2. Status of Prior Art
In the Italian Renaissance, it was then common practice for an artist, when undertaking to create a large painting, to first draw with charcoal on the surface to be painted a line drawing, called a cartoon, which outlined or sketched the intended painting. The artist would then paint over the cartoon to create a multi-colored painting.
Since the work of popular artists was then in great demand, a master artist would set up a school whose students served as apprentices who learned their craft by coloring in cartoons drawn by the master artist. It is for this reason that some paintings on display in museums are identified as being from the School of Rubens, or whatever other great artist was responsible for the cartoon underlying the painting.
It is no longer the practice for artists who paint to first draw a cartoon of the picture to be painted. Yet in a way this practice persists in so called paint-by-the-numbers pictures and colored pictures produced by users of craft kits. Such popular kits are provided with a set of crayons or color markers and a book on each of whose pages is printed a color-in line drawing or cartoon of a colored picture. The line drawing is divided into zones, each being delineated to encompass a respective color region of the colored picture.
Thus if the line drawing is that of a clown wearing a hat and a baggy costume, the zones dividing this line drawing make it possible for the child using the set of crayons to apply different colors to the hat, the costume, to the face and shoes of the clown and all other color regions of the figure to thereby recreate the original colored picture from which the line drawing was extracted.
A craft kit of the conventional type teaches a child using the kit the distinctions between colors and how to apply these colors to a drawing. But while this kit makes it possible for a child to recreate a colored picture whose original is the work of an artist, the child has no hand in choosing the colored picture to be reproduced, for it is the manufacturer of the kit who prints the line drawings to be colored-in. And in using the kit, the child gains no appreciation of the artistry involved in creating the original colored picture.
It is common practice for an art student to set up an easel supporting a canvas next to a known masterpiece in a museum, and with a palette then paint the canvas to reproduce the masterpiece. Though the reproduction may be poor, what the student gains by this experience is an appreciation of the artistry underlying the masterpiece. Since the present invention uses a computer to convert a colored picture into a line drawing, of prior art interest is line drawing conversion software, such as computer programs for this purpose produced by Micrografx Picture Publishers.
In view of the foregoing, the main object of this invention is to provide a craft kit having a set of crayons or markers of different colors and computer software making it possible to set up a computer system for converting a colored picture composed of color regions distributed throughout the picture into a line drawing in which each color region of the picture is delineated to define a zone to which color can be applied to recreate the colored picture.
More particularly, an object of this invention is to provide a system of the above type in which a digital image of the colored picture to be converted is fed into the system, the colored picture being one selected by the user of the system. By colored picture is meant not only a color photograph, but also a multi-colored painting or other work of art, or a scene viewed by a video camera.
Thus the craft kit may include software in which is digitally stored all of the known paintings of a major artist, such as Cezanne, the user of the system selecting from this software the Cezanne painting to be converted into a line drawing. Or the colored picture may be derived by a video camera trained on a scene.
Also an object of this invention is to provide a computer system for converting a colored picture into a line drawing by processing a digital image of the picture to extract therefrom the color regions distributed throughout the picture to define zones which delineate these regions, each zone bearing a number or symbol to identify the color to be applied thereto by a user of the system.
A significant advantage of the invention in which a line drawing divided into color-in zones is extracted from a multi-color picture, is that when the picture is that of a classic work of art, the child or user who colors in the zones of the line drawing gains an appreciation of the artistry underlying the work of art.
Briefly stated, these objects are attained by a computer system for converting a colored picture composed of color regions distributed throughout the picture into a line drawing in which each of these regions is delineated to define a zone. The zone bears a symbol identifies the color to be applied thereto.
The system includes a computer whose video display terminal is coupled to a printer to print out the displayed image. Fed into the computer is a digital image of the colored picture to be converted, the image being processed to produce said line drawing which is displayed on the terminal and transferred by the printer to a paper sheet. By applying to the respective zones of the line drawing on the sheet the colors identified by the symbols, the user is then able to recreate the colored picture.